Southwest Airlines mechanics picketed at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport Friday morning, the first in a series of events planned around the country to protest the lack of a contract and maintenance outsourcing. (www.azcentral.com) Más...

For many years Southwest has paid their mischances at the top of the pay scale for any US major airlines.They also have a very liberal regulations concerning the "trading of work days" so as the mischances can draw triple pay.Their base pay is over $40+ an hour before add ons.That is a base pay of over $85,000.00 a year so what more could thease greedy unions ask for ?

you said it yourself, and it has nothing to do with an aviation blog.greed.there is a segment of society that will just not be pleased. as you say, if they were getting $170K, there would still be a segment of troublemakers. you see, it is all proportional. union dues are based on compensation. the higher the wages, the more the union dues.in a manner of speaking, it has nothing to do with labor. it is simply a corporate shakedown.nothing more. nothing less.

Unions are collectives operated by executive members or a board of directors. Those directors will do anything necessary to protect the union because the union is their source of income.The workers are nothing but pawns. Pawns who are deluded into believing that the union bosses actually care about the well being of the rank and file.

as usual, when discussing politics, and THAT is what this is. they both are lying and telling the truth.SWA sends their aircraft to honduras or el salvador for schedule D maintenance.all others, they have tried to establish a base in the US but just can't seem to make up their mind what to do. PHX would be a good point as that seems to be their biggest point of presense.

this is from 2009, so take with a large grain of salt as it may not be accurate present day:

southwest has been "the little airline that could" in the past with very good advertising and supposedly cheaper fares..they also were not union for a long time,but now they are up there with the "big ones" and they have all the same problems/conflicts the other carriers have had for years..unions,wages,even some customer complaints (although no where near united!)I will bet at times they wish for "the good old days" when their routes were more limited, they had fewer aircraft, and their founder and ceo (I believe his name was Kelleher)would go to different stations and even work the ticket counter or ramp to show the employees his interest!~!

If you believe that.. you have never read one of post concerning them... I would put them below Asiana Airlines after San Francisco. They are about as close to perfect as a square peg going through a round hole!

At United we have a big time looser union and the crapiest merger of any airline.Continental mechs got shafted on our retro pay by shorting us 6 months.first the lying union said we had never received retro in the past which was false then they tried to ram a piss poor health care that would be run by the union only so the union could steal the money and we would be tied to them for ever.We voted 93% contract down.They got rid of that pathetic union scam health care thing and upped our what they origianlly said was not retro and now refered to it as retro but still no addition to the 6 months of the robed retro for the continental side this was due to the continental contract expiring 6 months before the United side did IT PASSED THE SECOND TIME BECAUSE THERE WERE MORE ON THE UNITED SIDE AND THEY WERE DESPERATE TO GET INTO OUR STATIONS IN FLORIDA WAS WHY IT PASSED SO WE COULD GET ALL THERE LOOSERS FROM DENVER WASHINGTON DC CHARLESTON AND NEWYORK AND LOOSE OR RETRO.but they dont give a ...... then we got all these looser united side come into contineNtals station who have seniority and do NOT know how to work the line same amount of years as me and there asking how to do a job i tell them go the manual WE should NOT have to tell a guy whos been here as long as US how to do something unbelievable.So South west mechanics whom ever says your greed do not listen to it YOU DESERVE EVERY CENT PENNY YOU CAN GET YOU WORK HARD TO MAINTAIN THOSE AIRPLANES ESPECIALLY THE MID NIGHT SHIFTS WHO HAVE TO WORK THOSE DIFFICULT HOURS.SO I HOPE YOU STRIKE AND TEACH THOSE MANAGEMENT WHO ARE THE GREEDY ONES AND WHO TAKE ALL THE MONEY AND HORD IT A LESSON OR TWO.THEY WILL TRY TO SCARE YOU WITH SOME TACTIC THAT IF YOU DONT TAKE WHAT EVER THEY OFFER THAT THERE GOING TO LAY EVERY BODY OFF OR THIS OR THAT DONT BELIEVE IT THATS WHAT UNIONS AND MANGEMENT DO TO GET A CONTRACT THROUGH.TRUST ME THEY DO IT OVER AND OVER.ONE TIME THEY TOLD US THEY WERE LOSING MONEY AND THERE WAS A FORK IN THE ROAD AND WHICH SIDE OF THE FORK TO TAKE.THEY HAVE THE UPPER HAND AND WILL TRY TO PUT FEAR IN YOU .STAY STRONG VOTE NO UNTIL YOU GET WAHT YOU WANT.IF CONTINENTAL HAD BOUGHT LOOSER UNITED LIKE SOUTHWEST DID AIR TRAN THEN WE COULD HAVE PUT THOSE LOSSER UNITED PEOPLE ON THE BOTTOM OF THE LIST WHERE THEY ALL BELONG FOR SAVING THERE AIRLINE.YOU SHOULD HAVE SEEN THE SHAPE OF THERE PLANES THEN AND NOW.